


Lily in the Desert

by TheLegendofStella



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Genre: Aerith Gainsborough Lives, Angst, Bard Aerith Gainsborough, Blood and Violence, Fix-It, Gen, Guitarist Aerith Gainsborough, Hospitalization, Hugs, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, OCs for world enhancement, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It, Resurrection, Reunions, Serious Injuries, Songs, Swearing, fake identity, healing through music, technically sort of?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-07-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:53:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25097935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLegendofStella/pseuds/TheLegendofStella
Summary: She really wasn't supposed to be here, she knew that much. She had been ready to move on after sending her healing rain, finally assured that her friends would be okay without her. How she desperately wanted to be with them again, help them out herself instead of through subtle little thoughts and visions and feelings, but... she had sacrificed her life. There was no turning back from that. So she accepted it, and let go.Aerith woke up at the bottom of a lake for her trouble.----------The Planet grants Aerith a second chance at life. Aerith doesn't use it like she should have from the beginning, she knows, but it turns out alright in the end.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 28





	Lily in the Desert

**Author's Note:**

> Basically, all you need to know about this is that Aerith's ghost came to me in the middle of the night a month ago and threatened to break my kneecaps if I didn't bring her back to life and make her a badass bard mage. I haven't been able to work on anything else because of this. Thanks, Aerith.
> 
> Songs used in this fic, which are not owned by me (obviously): "Hollow" by Nobou Uematsu ft. Yosh (Survive Said The Prophet), and "Don't Think Twice" by Utada Hikaru.

At the edge of Edge, a phrase which still brings much humor to the city's denizens, lives a young woman by the name of Eva Sarghil. To those who meet her, she is a wonderfully kind and bright lady with a zeal for life that hardly anyone shares these days. To those who know her, she holds a mysterious sadness within her, a longing that seems to have no origin. She feigns ignorance to it when asked, but the spark of _something else_ resonates deep in her eyes, and her songs- strummed beautifully on her electric guitar- take on a bittersweet tone for the night. They all have long stopped asking her about, knowing that whatever it was caused her pain, and that she would never answer them anyway.

No one quite knows where Eva Sarghil lived before coming to Edge. The woman had only responded with a shrug and simple words along the lines of "Somewhere very far away," and _very far away_ could mean anything in a city like Edge. There were many in the neighborhood who kept their pasts a secret, though, so no one bat an eyelash at it and simply moved on with their lives. The real curiosities were the origins of Eva's most beloved possessions: her guitar, a golden-winged staff, and a long pink ribbon.

The guitar was straightforward enough, or so it seemed. It was sleek and blue, painted bright with frost-like patterns, and was well taken care of by its owner. Eva had learned how to play it entirely from scratch, she claimed-- she was a natural-born maestro with it, bringing joy and beauty to whoever wished to listen with its crystal clear notes. Combined with her stellar singing, she could charm an audience into great applause and tearful happiness in a mere instant. And yet, sometimes, on a few special days, Eva would look upon her guitar with that deep fond-sadness she held, and would tell whoever dared to ask that she was only reminiscing about a time long passed, and to not worry about her. The people who cared for her worried anyway.

Now the staff was far more interesting. Only a few people had been allowed into Eva Sarghil's home, and even fewer were allowed to see the proud, golden beacon mounted on her living room wall. It was a beautiful battle staff, crafted by a meticulous hand in a long-forgotten age, its blades spreading out on either side like a valkyrie in flight. At the center of its crown lay large, red gemstones on both its faces, gleaming with power whether in warm sunlight or glittery moonlight. The staff's handle was a modest triad of color, a grey metal with red and black guards in a striped pattern. Eva claimed that it was given to her by an old friend in that "very far away" place, and also seemed protective of it whenever visitors were in the vicinity. People in the neighborhood were far more polite than to gossip about it behind the woman's back, but that didn't stop them from wondering.

As for the last item... Eva wore that long pink ribbon in her hair constantly, usually in a low ponytail to keep those long tresses out of the way. But it was a mysterious ribbon, one made of a material many in Edge hadn't seen in ages, and the way that Eva handled it was one of deep affection and, again, bittersweet memories. Even more curious was the fact that in all the ways she wore it, she only wore it at the back of her head twice. The first was when she disappeared into the abandoned ruins of Midgar for a day, for reasons only partially explained. The second was when she took an exponentially longer trip up north, something that took an entire month to do, and whatever happened on that trip brought her back happy and satisfied with a brand new pink ribbon, like she accomplished something very important to her. People asked questions, of course, but quickly understood that these oddities, just like the rest, were kept behind a veil of kind elusiveness, meaning that they were things not to be touched... at least not yet.

Despite all these things, Eva Sarghil was very much adored by her people. She was someone special, someone who gave precious life to others in abundance. The older generations, having barely survived through the Geostigma that had ravaged their lives, could not bear to lose a person that radiated such love and passion towards her fellow human being. Even if her personality hadn't been so stellar, she had done many good works in the past year to improve their lives: she volunteered at the local orphanage, stubbornly cultivated the barren earth beneath them, healed the sickly and destitute with both her doctoring and her music, and so much more. It was like she thrived by helping people instead of being burdened. "A saint, that girl is," Mrs. Anatolia once said, gruffly gesturing to the woman in question with a begrudging smile. "I don't know how she puts up with all us little people, with our petty little problems and hissy fits. I've never seen her get truly angry at anything, not even once, and doesn't that tell ya somethin'?"

Eva Sarghil was the weak light in the greyness of a new dawn, the lily struggling to live in a vast desert. Protecting and nurturing that small bit of life was the least they could do for her.

* * *

Eva plucked on her guitar absently, watching the sun set outside her window. It had been a quiet day today. All her days here were quiet, sometimes even melting into each other when things were particularly slow. It was kind of weird, honestly-- she'd spent so much time either cooped up in a bustling city or basically alone in the wilderness with no one else around that this was just... _strange_. Strange even after having lived here for a year. Was that normal? It probably was, considering what she went through before coming here.

She strummed out a chord, quickly drawing herself into her newest song, and began to reminisce.

She really wasn't supposed to be here, she knew that much. She had been ready to move on after sending her healing rain, finally assured that her friends would be okay without her. How she desperately wanted to be with them again, help them out herself instead of through subtle little thoughts and visions and feelings, but... she had sacrificed her life. There was no turning back from that. So she accepted it, and let go.

Aerith woke up at the bottom of a lake for her trouble, and almost drowned trying to swim towards the surface.

"Cloud, you _jerk_ ," she had coughed out violently once she got to the shore, more confused than angry. It was funny that her first thought was the fact that A) somehow her body had been perfectly preserved for two years in a deep lake when it shouldn't have been, and B) Cloud's choice of burial _seemed_ poetic at the time, but it apparently wasn't a good place to resurrect in _at all_. Her second thought was the one that started asking why she was here again.

She checked if she was actually alive, of course, because who wouldn't? It could've been a crazy dream for all she knew. She was alive, though, her lungs burning and her heart steadily pumping blood as if it hadn't given out two years ago. Aerith checked the earth beneath her, both physically and through her Cetra connection, and only felt the Planet's contentment as if nothing were amiss.

' _Why am I here?_ ' She asked gently, prayer-like and still to keep the connection open.

Gift, the Planet answered. Life. Rebirth. Reunion. Healing for those in need.

Aerith frowned but eventually understood, even if she didn't quite _understand_ it. The Planet had given her a second chance, even though it would have been much more efficient to simply take back her lifestream and begin healing again. Perhaps it was because she was a Cetra, one of the Planet's chosen, but... still.

She eventually got her bearings together, finding Princess Guard washed up on the shore beside her. It was still loaded with all the materia she had on it before she died: a fully mastered Restore paired with a level 3 All, Odin with an HP Absorb, a fully mastered Fire with a level 2 Elemental, and a level 3 Earth. The gold armlet she had on her wrist contained a level 2 Ice, a level 3 Heal, a level 3 Gravity, and a level 3 Lightning. She swapped the Earth and the Restore on Princess Guard into each other's places to better suit her individual needs, wrung out whatever bit of wetness was left in her clothing, and made her way out of the Forgotten City while there was still daylight.

The whole trek back to civilization was a harrowing one. Aerith had to forage for her food and follow fresh sources of water constantly, and that wasn't even mentioning the threat of monsters. There were less now that mako wasn't steadily being siphoned out of the Planet, but still. She learned very quickly how to fight completely on her own, and how to end fights as soon as possible if she wanted to survive. By the time she got down to Bone Village, she was exhausted, re-battle hardened, and in desperate need of food and shelter and everything else. She gave the poor excavators there quite a fright, looking half-mangled and crusted over with mud and all, but they were kind enough to give her a place to rest and recuperate safely.

Next was figuring out how to eventually get back to the Eastern Continent. Aerith used whatever little gil she had on her person to buy food, water, and a tent in case she was stuck in the wilderness again, but getting a ride out of the North Continent was going to be a problem-- it's not like she had the _Tiny Bronco_ or the _Highwind_ conveniently waiting for her. One of the workers, one she assumed was in charge of the site, offered to inquire about their HQ team's plane taking her back with them on their monthly supply run, which would put her on the Western Continent. She profusely thanked the man for his help, and decided that she would help out on the site as payment. It was the least she could do, after all, and she needed something to do for two weeks anyway!

Time flew by quickly, and before Aerith knew it, she was heading back to Costa del Sol- it was her first flight, could you believe it?- with a bit more gil in her pockets, courtesy of the excavation team for her time. She tried to refuse, but... she did kinda need it if she was going to get a ferry over to Junon. She made a quick pitstop at a clothing store to buy some new clothes- seriously, her old dress and jacket were in tatters at this point thanks to all the busywork she had been doing- and came out finally feeling like a person again. Jeans, t-shirt, socks, and a good pair of boots were all she needed right now. Anything else would come once she got herself to Edge. She bought a ticket for the upcoming ferry and arrived in Junon by nightfall, spending a night there to prepare for the worst.

It took her three days of camping to reach the ruins of Midgar, hugging the western coastline to get to the wasteland as quickly as possible. The river that dumped its waters at said coast was originally something of a problem, but Aerith found a way to cross it after enough stubborn thinking. She hadn't swam so hard or so tediously in her entire life (or was it lives now?), but it was so worth it. Once at Midgar, it was a hop, skip and a jump over to Edge, and she quickly hunkered down in a quiet neighborhood where she could regain her bearings and start a normal life over again.

Originally, she had planned to go straight to Cloud and the others- or, well, straight to the new 7th Heaven, really- but she realised that would be... unwise for a variety of reasons. For one, Aerith was _dead_ to them, meaning that anyone claiming to be 'Aerith' would be either labelled as suspicious or a threat, and an imposter either way. And even if she _did_ try to explain the situation... would they believe her? She knew _she_ wouldn't-- people don't just _revive from the dead_. But she did, and now she was here, so close to her best friends and yet so, so far.

"I'll see them when I'm settled in," she told herself and put the thought out of her mind for a while. She bargained for a small, worn home under the name 'Eva Sarghil'- Eva after her adoptive mother's stillborn child, Sarghil from sahagin (she couldn't think of anything else at the time, okay?)- and picked up whatever jobs she could to pay for her new necessities. Eventually she saved up enough to begin improving her life: repairs on the house, a fresh coat of paint she applied herself, better furniture... things like that. Things of extravagence never crossed her mind, never having been raised with such things and never wanting to have them anyway.

The only thing she ever bought that was something 'superfluous' was a guitar. She'd been on a walk through the busier parts of Edge when she saw it through a shop window, on clearance despite being a very high-quality electric guitar, and she knew she had to have it. Not because the Planet told her to get it, or because she knew a way to make tons of money with it, or anything else like that... she just wanted to have it. She loved music above almost anything else, and she'd always wanted to have a guitar as a child, even though she and her adoptive mother couldn't afford such a thing. So she went in and bought it on the spot, bringing it home in its case alongside a few small books of beginner's guitar sheet music. It took a lot of time and effort to teach herself how to play it properly, but she loved how it sounded and how it felt beneath her hands, and coming home from work to strum some chords and sing nonsense songs was far more fulfilling than it had any right to be. It was a good choice for her new life, especially since she didn't have any flowers to tend to.

Days turned into months, and then months turned into a full year, and Aerith realised she was procrastinating. _Avoiding_ , to be precise. Deepground happened around the time she was seriously considering a visit, putting just about everything on hold and making her feel frustrated. She was able to take those frustrations out on any Deepground soldiers that tried to take her, though-- Princess Guard was still as sturdy as ever, it seemed. Once things settled again, she continued her new life, forgetting her old life problems for a while.

And now here she was, watching yet another day end with her not having seen those that loved her and would surely be ecstatic to see her back from the dead. Aerith- Eva- sighed at the last chord, letting the guitar ring out into silence before putting it away for the day. Deep down, she knew why she was avoiding it. She was simply afraid that the ones she cared for the most would reject her, and if not that, she was afraid of hurting them with her return. Her death had wounded them all, and that wound was only now starting to heal. If she walked back into their lives like she hadn't been stabbed and taken away from them...

It was then, looking into the murky sunset, that she realised she was being stupid. What was she, Cloud? She was the one that fixed people problems, not let them fester unnecessarily. Yeah, she was afraid, but she was _always_ afraid, even when she seemed to fearless. She was afraid when she had never seen the sky before, afraid when she was taken away by the Turks, afraid when she was chasing down Sephiroth with the team, and _certainly_ afraid when she was summoning Holy, knowing that at any moment she would die-- and she did. But she had been brave through all of it, and she'll have to be brave about it now, regardless of what happens. She's made them wait long enough.

"Tomorrow," Aerith told herself when she went to bed that night, staring up at the ceiling with a decisive nod. "I'll visit them tomorrow."

Her heart was settled with this decision after so long of putting it off, but her sleep was plagued with nervous dreams.

* * *

She got up, brushed her teeth, took a shower, put on clothes, fixed her hair, and walked out the door with her bag. She didn't go into downtown Edge very often, but she went enough to know the general area somewhat... and how to get to Edge's most popular bar. Take a left onto the main road 'til you reached the recently reconstructed Meteor Monument, then turn onto Gainsborough Street (she had laughed at the name the first time around, even if it was mean of her) and walk until you see the sign. The blue, sun-like logo of the bar was far more ornate than the what the old 7th Heaven sign had, but it was a good ornate. Tifa deserved a bit of flair with her restaurant. She stood there a few more moments, stomach doing nasty little flip-flops in anxiety, before she took a deep breath and pushed the door open.

Being early morning, there weren't that many customers in. A few were in booths off to the side waking up with their coffees and teas and such. The bar itself was completely vacant except for Tifa, who was busying herself with washing up glasses. Before she could let herself think twice, Aerith decided to take the far bigger risk and sit down at the bar.

"Hey there! Welcome to-" Tifa choked at the sight of her newest customer, eyes widening in shock for a few seconds before shaking her head in disbelief. "Uh... S-Sorry, you, uh. You kinda looked familiar for a second."

Aerith tried not to wince at the reminder. "It's okay, I get that a lot." She didn't, but that was besides the point.

Tifa set down the wine glass in her hand with a breath, giving her a kind smile. "Let me start over. Welcome to 7th Heaven! What can I get you?"

She ordered an unsweet iced tea and today's morning special: eggs, which she made hard scrambled, on three pieces of toast. As she waited for Tifa to finish her order, she took in the restaurant interior more closely. It felt homey and inviting despite the modern, sleek black edge it had, mixing the old with the new. Crockery lined the back wall of the bar, and a few commemorative photos lined the other walls sparsely. After three years of business, 7th Heaven was quite the establishment, better than the previous 7th Heaven had ever been. Aerith was once again struck with pride for her friends and their achievements, and she gave a small smile into her iced tea.

She was about to start some conversation with Tifa- an attempt to gather up the courage to tell her who she really was- when the restaurant door jingled open.

"Cloud!" Tifa instantly perked up at the sight of the blonde, taking a moment to set Aerith's eggs down in front of her before bringing her attention back to him.

Cloud didn't notice the stranger at the bar, of course, aside from her existence. He simply took a seat five stools away, meeting Tifa half-way. "Hey."

Aerith looked at him gently, heart bursting with longing. He looked tired, far more tired than usual, and all she wanted to do was give him a big welcome back hug to heal all his wounds. But she couldn't do that-- no one knew it was Aerith sitting there, only a strange woman named Eva Sarghil who never even existed until a year ago. So instead she spooned some strawberry jelly onto her eggs and toast, and watched her two best friends converse as she ate. They didn't even notice she was listening in, so caught up in themselves they were.

"You look tired," Tifa pointed out, long having gotten past her initial awkwardness around him. "Did something happen?"

Cloud grunted. "...Not really. Just needed a break."

Tifa patted one of Cloud's hands with a comforting smile. "I get you. You want anything to eat or drink? It's breakfast time."

"..." He shrugged. "Water."

"Sure thing!"

Tifa got him some water and chatted with him more. Aerith ate her breakfast, glancing at the both of them now and then. She should really talk to them. But what about? All Eva Sarghil had was a penchant for being kind- a dime a dozen here- and some guitar-playing skills...

Aerith perked up. Guitar-playing. Of course! She would have more of an excuse to hang around 7th Heaven that way. "Um... miss?" She called out to Tifa, trying her best not to sound too nervous.

"Oh! Do you need something, ma'am?"

She huffed. "Oh, nothing like that. I was just... I just noticed you don't have much in the way of music in here." Would that be taken weirdly? She pressed on before she got an answer to that. "I was thinking that, um... I could volunteer my guitar?"

Tifa blinked, cocking her head to one side. It was adorable. "What do you mean?"

"I play guitar a lot in my spare time, but I've been kind of wanting to take it a step further for a while... If you want, I could come by here again with my guitar and show you what I mean. I'd love to play for a lot more people than myself and the neighbors, y'know?"

The woman considered it for a moment, slowly turning a questioning glance over to Cloud. The ex-SOLDIER just shrugged in response. "It's your bar, Tifa."

"You live here too, sometimes!" She teased lightly, and then turned back to Aerith. "Usually I wouldn't take people up on those kinds of offers, but... I'm kinda curious. What's your name, ma'am?"

She smiled. "Eva Sarghil."

Aerith gave Tifa her new number, and made an appointment for sometime next week. Just a showing, nothing else-- and that was fine, Aerith understood the precaution for what it was. She finished up her meal with a compliment or two, paid for it, and went back home. She felt proud of herself, all things considered; it wasn't quite what she needed to do, but it was a start. If she got a foot in the door, she might be able to transition into the bigger things with time.

Tifa was rather impressed with her skills when the meetup came. "You play so beautifully, Ms. Sarghil! How haven't you been snatched up by a pop group yet?"

Aerith merely laughed at the remark, shaking her head with a mysterious smile. "Pop groups aren't my cup of tea. They just seem so... lifeless, y'know?"

"Yeah, true!" Tifa laughed back, but then sobered. "Okay, um... Honestly, I hate to say this, but I don't think I can afford to pay you for anything like this at the moment? I'd love to, but 7th Heaven only brings in so much traffic..."

"I understand," she reassured, unruffled by the lack of money. She didn't need money for this, anyway. "I said _volunteer_ last week, didn't I? Just tell me when you'd like me to come in, and how long you want me to play."

Tifa smiled a bit hesitantly. "Are you sure? I'm sure you must be busy with your own work."

"It's fine, I promise. I can always shift my schedule around to accommodate for things." Being an independent contractor for a lot of her work was really starting to pay off. Hooray for being self-employed! She'll have to thank Cloud for the idea at some point.

"Okay then, if you say so. I think I may want you to come in on less busy days as a test run, so maybe on a Tuesday or something..."

Before long, Aerith was playing at 7th Heaven every Tuesday and Thursday, being paid in a free meal at the end of the day as per her own playful insistence. Her first day went off without a hitch-- customers were curious about the restaurant's newest addition in the good way, and were receptive to her songs all around. By the third day, she had gotten a small crowd of admirers. Business started to really pick up by the seventh day, especially since Aerith gave Tifa all the tips she had accumulated over the day for her music. Tifa tried to protest, saying that they were Aerith's tips, but she stubbornly overrode that with the reminder that her payment was food, not money. It was good to bully her friends into accepting her care again, even if it was under another identity.

She re-met Marlene again on one of her work days, and properly met Denzel. She had only ever seen Denzel from beyond the veil, murky and ephemeral, so finally seeing him in person was... an interesting yet welcome experience. He was a stubborn sort but also a sweetheart, just like his adoptive guardian... or was Cloud his adoptive father? She'll have to ask him once all the pressing stuff was out of the way. The two children quickly took a shine to her, and liked to chat with her whenever she wasn't busy playing or they weren't focused on schoolwork. They even helped her pack up or set up on occasion, which was very sweet of them. They were very good kids, and she was glad they were around to keep an eye on her old friends while she... readied herself.

Aerith stopped at her old church at some point on a whim, reacquainting herself with its rotted pews and its wonderful bed of flowers once again. She'd been here several times while she was dead, so it's not like she hadn't seen it in a very long time, but... it was different to actually see and feel it compared to 'feeling' it through the Lifestream. Being dead was weird, and being alive was even weirder now that she knew what it was like to be dead. Sometimes she wondered if the Planet had a terribly wonky sense of humor to allow these sorts of things to happen.

Things turned into a routine, and the routine became normal. Aerith upgraded from playing twice a week to thrice thanks to her popularity, and Tifa managed to weasel some money into her hands, saying, "I can't just keep not paying you! You put so much work into your songs, it just doesn't feel right!" Which was silly, really, since Aerith _insisted_ that she didn't need to be paid, but... that was Tifa for you.

Thursday evening, she decided to quit beating around the bush and just weather the fallout of the inevitable. Once Tifa closed shop for the night, Aerith plonked herself on one of the stools with a determined look, getting her dinner for the night: steak and chicken fajitas. "Thanks, Tifa. Hey, uh... Can I confide with you for a bit?"

Tifa gave her a curious look and leaned on the bar to be more conversational. "Sure. What's up, Eva?"

This was it. This was finally it. She'd finally be able to tell one of her friends that she was alive again, and all the things she should've apologized for sooner but couldn't. "I'm... Well, I'm actually-"

The phone rang. Aerith jumped at the noise, feeling a little bit slapped in the face as Tifa went to check the receiver. "Oh... it's-"

"Cloud. Right?"

Tifa blushed faintly. "Yeah."

Despite her frustration, Aerith managed to smile kindly at her. "Go ahead, talk to him. I don't mind waiting."

"But... I don't want to leave you just hanging like that-"

"It's fine! Go talk to your boyfriend already, sheesh!"

She giggled at the way Tifa reddened at her remark, but the woman simply huffed and picked up the phone finally. "Hey Cloud! What's up? Coming home late again?"

Aerith stuffed a steak fajita wrap into her mouth to keep busy, ignoring the one-sided conversation she could hear. She suddenly understood Cid's habit of swearing in that moment, especially considering that she had been interrupted in such an important moment. It was like the Planet was conniving against her or something. Honestly! No wonder Cid had a temper if he constantly felt like she did right now! ... But it was okay. She could handle waiting a bit longer. She certainly waited a year for it, why not wait a few more minutes?

When Tifa put the phone down, it was with a strange, worried countenance. "Sorry about that, Eva. What was it that you were going to say before?"

Aerith looked at her for a long time, brow pinching slightly. Tifa only had that particular expression on her face when Sephiroth was involved, and knowing Cloud... She needed to know about this first. "It's... not too important. What happened with Cloud?"

Tifa shrugged a bit helplessly, shaking her head. "It's... just a Cloud problem, I think. He was just calling me to let me know he'd be trying to deal with it for a while. It's Cloud-speak for not coming home for a while."

She did her best not to feel hurt. Of course she wouldn't get more than a vague non-answer, she's just a stranger to Tifa even if they were friends now. It was fine. She just had to press a little harder. "Huh... Does he do that often?"

"Um... he used to a while back. He stopped doing it once the Geostigma was healed..." So when Sephiroth was killed again, basically. "But sometimes he just gets bad feelings, I guess. It's a little hard not to, with what he's been through."

... Maybe that was enough for Aerith to go off of. Still... she'd never had to pull teeth with any of them like this. "What he's been through? ... Oh, sorry, I don't mean to pry-"

"It's fine. He used to be part of Shinra's military. That in of itself is kinda self-explanatory, y'know?"

She nodded like she didn't already know that. "I see."

Sephiroth was acting up again, and if Aerith knew anything about repeat performances, he'd torment Cloud for ages and ages until he sapped enough strength to resurrect himself from the dead. She was sure that if any of her friends knew how to kill Sephiroth for real, they'd do it in a heartbeat... but they didn't, because they couldn't talk to the Planet and they thought the only one of them that _could_ was dead. So they'd have to wait around until Sephiroth _did_ show up, and by then it'd be almost too late. Could she really sit around for however long it took Sephiroth to reform himself, and let her friends suffer?

She narrowed her eyes down at her plate. No, she couldn't. This didn't just concern her friends, this concerned the _Planet_ , and as the last living Cetra... she had to nip this in the bud. No one else could do it, and she wasn't the type to shirk duties.

... She was going to regret this. "Tifa... I'm thinking of going on a trip soon."

"Really? Where to?"

"Oh, up to the North Continent, I think." Aerith started in on a chicken fajita, drowning out the voice shrieking in dismay in the back of her head with more food. "I heard Icicle Inn has some pretty cool hiking trails at this time of year."

"Oh, yeah, it does!" Tifa gave her a beaming smile, glad to change topics. "I've only been up there briefly, but they've really become a sophisticated winter resort town in the last three years, last I heard!"

Oh, she was _so_ going to regret this.

* * *

Aerith debated over whether or not to catch a flight over to Icicle Inn or trek there by foot, but ultimately decided that time was of essence and the sooner she dealt with Sephiroth, the sooner she'd be able to get back and finally spill the beans. So she bought the cheapest ticket she could and packed up everything she needed for the trip ahead of time. A few sets of clothes that included cold protection, a rudimentary camping set, some food, some water, extra materia, extra items, a power wrist, a crystal bangle... and the two most important things to her: Princess Guard slotted with a good array of materia, and her trusty guitar. She wasn't sure why she felt like she had to bring her guitar on a journey that might lead to a fight, but... Something told her she needed it, and she knew better than to argue with her gut feeling. It had saved her many times over in the past, and the one time she _did_ ignore it was the one time Sephiroth stabbed her in the back. Literally. Funny how she could joke about that, now.

Five days later, Aerith was tromping her way through several inches of snow to the resort's now moderately famous inn. It was bigger than when she last briefly saw it, sporting a few more rows of rooms this time, but it was still cozy and homey-feeling when she stepped into it, and thankfully the room prices weren't sky-high yet. The owners were nice folks, though, so that may have had something to do with it. It was too late in the day to take the hike all the way to the North Crater, so instead she sorted through her packs and rechecked all her materia to make sure it didn't get tampered with. Old adventurer paranoias and all. Afterwards she got some rest, and refreshed her water supply when she woke up.

"Um, excuse me? Do you know how I can get up to the North Crater?" She asked the woman at the inn's front desk just before leaving.

"North Crater? Goodness, you're ambitious, aren't you?" The woman chuckled a little bit. "Listen... I understand you may be an AVALANCHE fan wanting to sight-see where the heroes fought their last battle, but there's sub-zero temperatures and high wind speeds up there. You'd probably end up freezing to death if I let you go up there!"

Aerith gave her a small smile and showed off the fully-mastered Fire materia she had on Princess Guard. "I also have a full thermal suit and a snow jacket that I've yet to put on, plus a bunch of other precautions. I'm a lot tougher than I look, miss."

The woman gave her a dubious look, but eventually relented. "Alright, if you really insist... You could go the old-fashioned route and borrow a skateboard, or you could try hiking along the mountain range with the new trail path. It's not wet season right now, so it should be fairly traversable. Either way, I recommend one of our maps and a compass... and to be extremely careful. It's pretty much still No Man's Land out there, even with our recent efforts to make it easier on folks, and the snow plus the monsters is always a bad time."

She nodded. "I knew that coming into this. I have a compass, but I'll pick up a map on the way out. Thank you, miss."

As she turned to go back up the stairs, the woman called her attention again. "Come back in one piece, okay? Tell us what's going on up there!"

Aerith laughed. "Sure thing!"

She ate a light breakfast from the inn and then headed out after she bundled up. The sky was just starting to lighten, but it would be bright enough to see decently once she got everything she needed from the town. She borrowed a snowboard that was apparently of good quality, if one of the townspeople's suggestions held any weight, and got a map, which she promptly folded into her pack for later. She triple-checked that all her stuff was on her person- the pack, the guitar, and Princess Guard- and then headed toward the snowboarding hill.

Snowboarding, it turned out, was the one of the funnest things she'd ever done.

"WOOHOO!!!" She laughed, speeding down the snow-covered hill with joyful abandon. Once she got her balance down on the board, it was only a matter of being sensitive with her body weight to turn and slow down, and honestly that was _easy_. Thank Gaia for the ski goggles, though, otherwise she'd have been blinded by all the snow at some point and possibly crashed to her death. Seriously, some of these turns were _ridiculously_ difficult even with her quick reflexes. How did Cloud do this without goggles and other snow gear? ...Oh, right, not-really-ex-SOLDIER mako enhancements and stuff.

The fun eventually ended, though, when she came to the drop. She kept her cool even as she ended up sailing through the air for a lot longer than she should have, and managed to cushion her fall with a well-timed twist into a shit ton of snow. Man, she was wearing at least three layers of clothing and she could _still_ feel the iciness seeping through! Aerith laughed out a small swear as she picked herself back up, unlatching herself from the thankfully intact snowboard and tucking it under her arm. Okay... Now came the _real_ fun part.

She took a small break to hydrate and have a quick bite to eat, knowing she'd need the energy for the massive hike her way, and got to work. The map wasn't helpful at first, but she managed to find her way to one of the landmarks and got herself oriented quickly enough. It really was _cold_ up in these parts, even with the fully-mastered Fire materia keeping her relatively warm and her clothes insulating that heat. Eventually the snow became too bright to look at with her bare eyes, so she had to trek the rest of the way in her ski goggles... which wasn't _completely_ irksome, but. Still. Her face is going to be sore by the time she gets up to that guy's cabin... ... There _was_ a cabin up there, right? _Right_?

She came upon the snow field after an hour or two of hiking and fighting monsters through beautiful, if rather chilly, ice formations, and pulled out her compass. The cabin was up towards the north, if she remembered her vague and hazy recollections of her friends' journey, so... all she had to do was follow her compass and brave the blistering winds. She poured a little bit of energy into her Fire materia to bolster herself, and then stepped forward, pulling the furred hood of her coat up and securing it. As soon as the winds hit her, snow-slush battering at her face, she knew this was going to be tough and _completely_ rage-inducing, but she'd live through it and that was all that mattered.

Finally, the cabin came into view from what little she could see past the winds. Aerith let out a triumphant shout and hurried her way over to the ice-slicked incline, shivering even with the Fire materia going at full blast. "How d-did everyone s-s-stand this?! It's so _cold_!" With one last shiver she almost pounded on the door, wincing at her lack of finesse.

A kindly old man opened the door, almost jumping in surprise upon seeing her. "Oh dear! Come in, come in! You're going to freeze any moment now!"

She was ushered in without preamble, almost fussed over as she stripped her equipment and outer layers off, and was soon situated at the couch with a cup of hot chocolate. She tried to refuse it on the principle that hot chocolate was rather expensive, but the man pressed it into her hands anyways, so she just sighed and let the mug warm her fingers. "Th-Thank you, sir. It's... a lot colder than I was expecting."

"This is the warmer season, if you can believe it!" The man laughed, stoking the fire a bit more. "It gets a lot colder come dry season, since the sun hardly ever shows up then. Though... I have to admit, it wasn't as bad as three years ago. It used to just be constant cold, no matter what time of the year it was-- the poor plants and animals around here had to become tough as nails." He turned back to her once he was done with the fire, giving her a friendly, curious look. "What's your name, miss?"

Aerith paused. Should she use her pseudonym, or her real name? ... "Aerith Gainsborough."

"Ah, that's a rather pretty name. Let me guess, you're here to try and climb the cliff, too?"

"Yes." She laughed a little, sipping at her hot chocolate. "Do people come up here often?"

"Oh, occasionally. Only one or two of them actually went ahead and attempted to climb, but as far as I know, no one's ever entered the actual crater since those fellows three years ago did. What did they call themselves? AVALANCHE?"

She nodded. "Yeah, that was their name. They're disbanded now."

The man chuckled. "Ah, what a shame. You're a fan of them, right? I'm sure it must be a let-down to know they've parted ways." He sat down in his own chair across from her, hands wrapping around a hot mug of tea. "Oh! I'm terribly sorry, I forgot to introduce myself earlier. You can just call me Holzoff. I'm a senior climber around these parts, especially with all the new traffic... You'll have to forgive an old man for being slow on occasion."

Aerith smiled at him. "It's alright. Sometimes I forget these things, too."

They chatted while she warmed up and rested, talking mainly about what Aerith was going to do for the climb. He walked her through the basics and not-so-basics, which she did her best to learn and occasionally write down on the scraps of paper she had lying around because wow, climbing up a dangerously icy cliff was something you needed to plan for, who knew? It wasn't long before Aerith was packing her things back up, despite her slight dread at going back out into the cold-- she wanted to reach the center of the North Crater by nightfall at the very least. Holzoff repeated a few of his warnings before letting her go, and then she was off.

The Fire materia was a life-saver, and if she could go back in time and kiss her past self, she would. She still had to keep moving to keep her body temperature up, sure, but the materia kept her from instantly going into a frozen stupor every time she stopped. The caves within the cliff face were a reprieve from the hellacious wind chill, but they were filled with all sorts of creepy crawlies that she occasionally had trouble with. She almost wished she had her friends with her so that at least she wouldn't be fighting a Malboro _all by herself_. Seriously, having at least one of them by her side would make this trip so much easier... maybe someone like Nanaki, or Vincent. Vincent would be the best, he wasn't nearly as affected by the cold as she was and he could shoot a monster dead before she even heard it. And he was such a protective sweetheart, even if he seemed so cold most of the time...

Aerith frowned, taking a rest at a healing spring. Where _was_ Vincent, anyway? Or the rest of them? She _vaguely_ knew where they might be, but that was when she was still in the Lifestream a year ago, so for all she knew they could be anywhere. Hearing about what happened with Deepground scared her a little- she'd have never forgiven herself if Vincent had died and she hadn't done anything to try and stop it- but everything seemed to have turned out okay... perhaps as another gift from the Planet. She knew where Reeve, Yuffie and Cid were, being mostly or completely affiliated with the new WRO still (it was still new to her, even after all this time), and Nanaki was at Cosmo Canyon she _assumed_. Barret was travelling the world, she had seen Tifa and Cloud with her own eyes, Vincent could be anywhere but at least had a communications trail... And here Aerith was, completely isolated from them all, trekking up into the bowels of the Planet for all their sakes. It was like the last time she went on her own, but even worse, because _no one knew_. She might be heading straight to her second death, and no one would ever know that she'd been alive for a year. And if they _did_ find out... she couldn't imagine the level of heartbreak. She knew _she'd_ be completely broken if one of them had come back to life only to die before she even knew about it. Gaia, she should've just _told_ Tifa that day, regardless of the consequences or conversational civilities or whatever other _nonsense_ people had to adhere to...

She sighed, plunking her head onto her drawn-up knees. She was such a hypocrite.

... After a moment of miserable silence, Aerith picked herself back up, both physically and metaphorically steadying herself with Princess Guard. No use crying over spilled milk, especially when she's in too deep to back out.

* * *

The final climb up was surprisingly easy, but welcomed. She took a moment to rest and look down into the vast, partially destroyed crater, noting the changes. The Lifestream swirling around it was not nearly as severe as it was three years ago, exposing a lot more of the center into view. The scarring was nasty and exacerbated by Sephiroth's efforts, but finally starting to heal somewhat. Even as distant as this place was, Aerith could still feel the Planet and the way it was desperately mending itself, as weak as it was. She spoke to it softly, reassuringly, and the Planet hummed beneath her hands. Things would be okay.

She picked her way down carefully, making sure she didn't slip on the few icy patches still left. Once she reached the flatter parts of the crater, she huddled away where the monsters couldn't see her and ate some more food. Keeping her body temperature up burned through way more energy than she thought it would, it was kind of nuts. It was on the cusp of twilight when she poked her head out again, the daytime monsters starting to wind down now that the light was dimming... and the nighttime monsters coming out in droves. She snuck past them as best she could, only having to throw a few gremlin-looking things off some of the edges to their deaths.

There were fewer monsters once she climbed down into the subterranean levels, turning colder and damper the further she went. She knew she was reaching her end goal when she saw large swathes of crystallized mako lining the walls, violently unearthed from Holy's rampage. The concentrated mako glowed brightly enough to light her way, so she didn't bother getting her flashlight out. The voices of the Planet began to reach her more clearly, whispering almost painfully in her mind as she drew near...

A large pool of shimmering Lifestream greeted her at the very bottom, undulating softly. Aerith smiled in triumph, standing at the edge to gaze at it. The Planet was calm, albeit a bit overwhelming right now-- it seemed to be eagerly awaiting its only Cetra's next actions, knowing that she had come to heal it and confide with it properly.

"Sorry, you're gonna have to wait a while," she spoke idly, dumping her sleeping bag and blankets out of her pack. "I need a good, long rest before I can do anything. I'm only human, y'know!"

Aerith slept deeply, surprisingly enough. Probably because she was completely and utterly exhausted by all the _sub-zero temperature climbing_ she had to do, but it sure was convenient considering the Planetary distractions. A quick, hot breakfast when she woke up roused her spirits, and she finally got the courage to shed her outer coat in order to get comfy, because she had a feeling she'd be here for a _long_ time. Hopefully not so long that she ran out of food and water before she could get back to safety, but... well, snow is edible, she won't die of dehydration unless she's injured.

She sat at the lake's edge, wondering how to go about this. She didn't really have a solid plan, just the urge to get here, so... Should she seek out Sephiroth's soul from where it was in the Lifestream, or should she just start healing the Planet and see what happens? ... She shrugged to herself and raised her hands, providing a conduit to the Planet's energies. Might as well start easy, right?

Aerith was in the middle of mending the Planet's core when she felt a malignant presence rise up, half-formed and sludge-like. She drew away in time to see the mako ripple and a dissolved body clawing its way up to the surface, green eyes glowing with disdain.

She looked down at the wraith with a nonchalantly-raised brow. "Hello, Sephiroth."

The alien soul mass glowered. The Cetra girl should be _dead_. He had made sure of that.

"Yeah, I know. You look like you've seen better days."

A viscous sneer erupted from him, but he wasn't strong enough to do anything except float there. All he could do was simply look at her and wonder what she was doing here.

"Eh, I dunno, heal the Planet? You interrupted me, by the way. Nosy," she teased, as if she wasn't speaking to her murderer. But honestly, she didn't feel threatened by him, even when he was at the height of his power-- she was a Cetra, and Cetra were fearless by nature, she found. And besides... Sephiroth was beget of violence and misunderstandings. It wasn't in her best interest to feed into that violence. "You're causing Cloud pain again. I'm here to make sure that ends."

He floated back, streaks of silver hair beginning to emerge as he gathered himself up. It was not _his_ fault Cloud refused to accept him as his one and only.

"It kind of is, actually. You burned down his hometown and killed his only family, remember?" She wandered over to grab her guitar case and dragged it back over to the edge, sitting down cross-legged. "And you killed me, too, but that's besides the point."

So flippant... Why did she not fear him?

"Why should I?" Aerith pulled the guitar out and into her lap, plucking at the strings to tune them again. "You've already killed me, so I already know what death feels like. You've gone ahead and threatened us with doomsday, like, _twice_ , once with Meteor and once with the poor Remnants, so..." She shrugged, setting her hand upon the strings to quiet them. "Besides, you can't do anything right now even if you wanted to. You look like a giant pile of moss that went through the shitter."

Mako splashed high as a half-formed arm clawed against the pool's wall in anger. How dare she mock him!

Aerith huffed, huddling away from the splashes. "Hey! Don't be rude! It was just an observation!"

They both quieted down after that, not having any more to say or do to each other. Aerith eventually began to play again, this time an actual melody being formed rather than just random notes slapped together. She played whatever came to mind, of memories long past and friendships forged in battle cries and spilled blood. She thought of the sky, of moonlit forests, of abandoned slums never rebuilt. Spies who turned good, the struggle of a girl left behind, a well-meaning father. A wisened warrior, beings cursed with cells not their own, a love that sacrificed himself for another. Those who died and those who lived, those who lingered in the past and those who moved on. Where was she in the middle of all this, she wondered? The Planet hummed around her, holding all the answers yet giving none, silently using her passion to mend itself once more.

Sephiroth floated in the lake, eerily silent. He may be alien, yes, but he was not a fool-- he still retained all the human knowledge he earned in his previous lifetime. The girl's music, as much as he loathed to admit, was of good quality... and soulful, the sensation made exponential with all the mako he was submerged in. It made him feel things he thought he would never feel again. Damn Cetra... she should've stayed _dead_.

Aerith couldn't help but laugh, just a little, as she let her last notes fade. "Do I really play that badly, or are you just being a curmudgeon alien baby again?" The mako frothed with sharp annoyance and a deep glare, to which she responded with only a mischievous smirk. It melted into a thoughtful, sympathetic frown the longer she looked at the mass. "I think I understand what you mean, though. Music is a powerful thing-- has been since the dawn of the Cetra, and maybe even before. To hear things with your ears is far more reliable than seeing things with your eyes. That's what makes music so beautiful, and yet so deadly. It makes music deeper than the other arts, at times."

Her eyes flickered to a bright crystal glimmering on the far wall, sinking low enough for the liquid mako to lap over its edge on occasion. It seemed to be caught between dissolution and precipitation, melting and solidifying over and over again in a single breath. She wondered if that was how Sephiroth felt, being trapped like this by his own volition. "... Do you like music, Sephiroth?"

He stayed silent. Why answer such a lowly question?

"Why not? You've got nothing better to do. Besides... you're still human, even if you think you're not." She said this gently, kindly, because it was true. At some point, there had been a Sephiroth who had been completely human, lost and alone and _infected_ with a parasite he could never hope to resist, and that man still lay deep within, albeit as a rotted husk of what he used to be. For a time she had been angry with him, yes- being killed and having to watch her friends struggle against him from beyond the veil was quite infuriating- but now all she wanted to do was finally put this torn creature to _rest_ , as he should have been years ago. "I can play something for you, if you want."

Didn't she already play something earlier?

"That was different. A warm-up, really. Now I just need an idea or a theme. Have any suggestions?"

He shifted uneasily, drifting over to the other side of the pool. This continued behavior of ease was beginning to grate on his nerves, confusion turning into suspicion and then hatred, but... something about it was peaceful. Damn Cetra presence, probably. ... He made an effort to spit out a wet cough through lungs that no longer worked, something between 'I don't care about things like that' and 'just get on with it already.'

Aerith shrugged. "Suit yourself, moss man. Maybe... I'll do one of my favorites. I think you'll like it, too-- it's something you think should be happy, but it's actually quite tragic when you look at it hard enough." She looked down at her guitar, admiring the way the green mako glow reflected off the electric blue frost and made it seem like it was shining, too. She readied her hands, fingers pressing into strings long made familiar. "I call it... " _Hollow_.""

The chords were as familiar as always, a mixture of calm, nostalgia, and melancholy resonating at the same pitch. It felt similar to looking back through an old and dusty collection of photos, remembering and wondering over the events that had passed during those snapshots. Would she have changed things, if she could? Would this song have changed as well? Would she have gotten something happier out of it, for all of them?

She was no seer, not anymore. All she wanted, and needed, to do was sing. So she sang.

"I would be lost,  
Drifting alone.  
Floating up high  
Time after time...

And there you'd be,  
Shining brightly,  
Your smiling face  
To guide my way."

She thought of Cloud and his crippling grief, her death and Zack's death and Sephiroth's murder of trust compiling into one, and she wished dearly that she could've comforted him when he needed her the most. It did not matter that she had died and passed on to the Planet, unable to touch reality as a mere soul, she still failed him. Perhaps that was why this one song struck her so, and why she always played it so bitterly.

"Bloody and bruised,  
Brought to my knees.  
When beaten down,  
When broken up,

You would appear,  
Reach out to me,  
Heal every wound,  
And make me whole."

Aerith scuffed her boot against the ground, sitting up with a burst of energy. She will use that bitterness and selfishness to _heal_ , as was her duty to the Planet and her friends.

"Was it all a dream?  
Will I never know?  
Foolish and blind  
To everything.

Had I realised,  
Had I thought it through,  
Would you be here  
In my embrace?"

The Planet swayed, reacting to her steady crescendo in volume and passion, and then-

"Shine bright," Aerith belted out, a high alto filled with longing and regret and determination,  
Once more!"

"Guide me  
To you!

Smile bright  
Once more!

This time,  
I will never let you go!"

She played and sang like she had never sang before, hunched beside a cold pool of mako deep beneath the earth, and spared no thought elsewhere. If her golden lilies were what kept her eyes pure, then this raw, metal passion was what kept her ears wise, penetrating the soul and amplifying the emotion within. It was her rapture, her sanctuary, and some day, she'd build that sanctuary to house those who needed her the most, people old and new. Some day, some way, she'd do it, even if it took her half a lifetime. It gave her hope, and it showed as she played. When she came upon her next cue, she looked up with wet eyes and a wide smile.

"With your every smile,  
Hiding something more,  
Dark mysteries  
Lurking beneath.

But I was consumed  
With this emptiness,  
This selfishness,  
This void to fill--

Hear me  
Once more!

Show me  
Your smile!

This time,  
For sure,

I'll see  
The truth hidden inside your tears!"

Her smile widened, her magic swirling involuntarily to her resolve, powerful and saddened-

"But I,  
I know,

That you're  
Long gone!

But I,  
I will

Go on  
Howling and Ho- o- llow!!"

She sang crystal clear, controlling the magic, the soul, trying to climb its way out of her chest, the zeal gripping her hands turning soft and accepting, the five stages of grief resolved by the last verses. Because that's what this song was, wasn't it? Happiness turning to grief, then moving on and making things right. It was the ultimate expression of healing she could muster, and so _dear_ to her circumstance. She was meant to play this here, heal the Planet's wounds with this song over time, and flourish under it.

She felt happy, despite her tears.

* * *

The cavern rang with her last harsh notes, haunting and beautiful, and she knew she had gotten carried away. If she had been any louder, she might've actually caused a cave collapse... or something worse. Still... she didn't regret any of it. There was the emotional whiplash, yes, but she probably needed to let it all out anyway... and it hardly mattered with such an unconventional audience. "I didn't expect to get so worked up," Aerith laughed softly, breaking through the lingering tension. "I'm sorry. I think I played rather well, though. Maybe I needed to get all those emotions out of my system anyway, you know?"

Sephiroth lay unmoving. He was so quiet that she couldn't even feel his thoughts. However... he didn't feel as antagonistic as he was before. Maybe it was a temporary lull caused by her song's intensity. Maybe it was a soul-changing moment for him, and he needed to digest it.

Either way, Aerith simply smiled and set her guitar off to the side. "It's interesting, isn't it? How these things work out. Years ago, I would've been too mad at you to hold a decent conversation like this. But then the Planet spit me out from the lake, and I lived in Edge for a while, and now I'm here. Just goes to show that things aren't always as they seem at first glance."

He turned a narrowed eye upon her. What did she mean by that?

In lieu of a reply, she scooted closer to the mako's edge, peering down into the neon green abyss. Now that her emotions were cleared, and the being that used to be a man was receptive... maybe she'd be able to do something. "Sephiroth... Was it worth it to cast aside your humanity?"

Yes. The answer was immediate and unrelenting, bordering on a snarl. Humans were inferior to him, and had no place in his DNA!

"Is that really what you think, Sephiroth? Or do you just feel betrayed that people never really noticed you for who you were?"

Tense silence. It didn't intimidate her-- this was almost Aerith's forte, in a way. She knew how to stare down anything, from monsters to deranged scientists to the very Planet itself. It was far too easy to be patient through this bout, considering what she had gone through previously.

The silence was eventually broken by a growl. Were they not the same thing? Humans were inferior _because_ of their betrayal.

"I hope you mean that in an emotional sense, not through whatever garbage Hojo sold you in that mansion. You have to know that stuff was false at this point, right?"

He absorbed the wisdom of the Ancients, of _course_ he knew. Foolish girl.

Aerith narrowed her eyes. "I'm making a point. You want to destroy mankind because of a betrayal. I've seen what evils people are capable of doing to each other, so I understand. But is this really what _you_ want?"

...What did she mean by that?

"I mean... is this what you yourself want, or is that what _Jenova_ wants?"

The way Sephiroth stared at her with slowly growing hatred not his own was answer enough. Aerith wasn't stupid-- Jenova wouldn't be an effective parasite if some _inferior organism_ so easily managed to override her will, after all, and as long as Sephiroth, the most concentrated form of J-cells, existed, Jenova would continue to exist as well. The Cetra would not have struggled so hopelessly if Jenova wasn't a real force to be reckoned with. Sephiroth kept his autonomy, yes, but only because it suited Jenova best. Sephiroth was wholly convinced that her will was _his_ , not the other way around. Aerith aimed to break that illusion and put Sephiroth- the real Sephiroth- to rest, to make sure Jenova couldn't make any more people suffer under her control. But... it would definitely take time. And she had no doubts that Jenova would eventually catch on and attack her personally, which meant she had to prepare to face down the very thing that drove her people to extinction _by herself_.

She stood up, taking her guitar with her. She'd figure it out later. "Think about it, Sephiroth. Think about everything you've done up to this point. Were the words you said... the things you did... the decisions you made... yours? Or were they planted within you by another?"

Aerith left him there for the rest of the day, returning to her makeshift camp and going through the motions of eating, looking out for monsters, equipment checking and maintenance, and then sleeping. The next day she got up, had breakfast, and began to heal the Planet again. She made progress little by little, restoring what had been gouged out of the earth and what had been torn apart by war and pestilence and strife. Sometimes these endeavors exhausted her; sometimes they envigorated her. It was her duty, and she kept herself company with the Planet and her music, so it was fine.

Sephiroth returned to her on the fourth morning, staring at her with an intensity that would've made a lesser man tremble. Aerith stared back after greeting him, waiting him out patiently.

He shifted uneasily after a while, narrowing his eyes at her when it was clear she wasn't going to initiate the conversation. Why did she care for humans and their filth?

"Because they go through the same struggles I do every day," Aerith answered. "They need food, water, shelter. They need to care for their family and their friends. They try to live in a world that isn't fair."

Humans are ignorant, and crave violence.

"...Yeah, you're right," she admitted, yet kept his gaze. "I've seen a lot of people that want to hurt others for their own satisfaction. But those people aren't my friends, or my neighbors, or the children I've grown to care for. I don't wish death or suffering upon those violent people, because no one on the Planet deserves those things... but I don't condone them."

He sneered. She had not seen the things he had seen.

"I've seen some. I've seen Hojo, and Cloud, and Tifa, and Zack. I've heard of the man you once were, the friends you once had, and the madness that overtook you in your anger. You've had so much taken away from you, and no one realises that anymore." Aerith frowned, and sat beside the mako once more. "I'm sorry. I wish you knew what it was like to have been happy."

They fell into silence again. She didn't mind. It was a lot to take in for a soul that had never known compassion.

... In a moment of weakness, he quietly wished he knew happiness, too.

"You could start over, if you wanted." Aerith whispered gently, afraid that if she spoke too loudly during such a fragile turning point, all of her efforts would be put to waste. "You could be reborn as someone new and try again for happiness."

He doubted it worked like that.

"Well... it's still the thought that counts, I think. Clinging on to past regrets and grudges gets pretty tiring, doesn't it?"

Sephiroth refused to answer.

She hummed, quickly changing topics. "Okay, maybe that's not the right thing to ask. What about Angeal and Genesis? They're... They've been waiting for you, I'm pretty sure."

Angeal... Genesis... He had not thought about his two old friends in eons. He had not had time to grieve over them when they disappeared and seemed to stab him in the back, and then...

"I'm sorry," Aerith said again, helplessly. She cursed Hojo's vile machinations once more, wishing that the man had never existed in the first place in order to inflict such _suffering_. "The only thing I can say is that they must have loved you through it all, even if they didn't show it. I think..." She listened to the Planet carefully, trying to single out either of the two former First Class SOLDIERS in the Lifestream, but could only sense one. She wondered if she should be concerned about that. "... I think they would like to see you again. _You_ , and not the thing you've been twisted into."

Slowly, surely, it seemed to do the trick. Sephiroth was calming, even if it was only by a little bit, and the true danger had passed... thankfully. Aerith wasn't sure how she managed to avoid a conflict with him, but she wasn't going to look a gift chocobo in the beak. Instead... She took one more look at Sephiroth's half-dissolved form and placed her hands on the ground, closing her eyes in concentration. ' _Where is Angeal Hewley?_ '

The Planet rumbled quietly, searching within itself on her behalf. The man had been dead for several years, so the lifestream that made him was now half gone, but it seemed as though he had been clinging on to sentience as best he could to watch over his friends. He immediately answered the Planet's call as if he'd been waiting all this time for the chance. His presence glimmered brightly under her hands as he moved foward, and Aerith was suddenly reminded of Zack's fearless tenacity. Of course she was-- Angeal was the source of Zack's griefs and growths, both before and after his death. Zack... Where was he? Was he even in the Lifestream now that she was gone...?

"An...gea...l?" Sephiroth wheezed audibly in surprise, destroyed lungs failing yet again as mako filled them. Aerith opened her eyes and saw the spectral visage of a gloved hand curling around him, speaking things only he could hear. It was rare that she saw souls of the departed coax others into the afterlife, but this occasion was special even by those standards. The great Sephiroth, murderer and mad man, was finally letting go. The Planet would finally be at peace from his everlasting vengeance. Her friends wouldn't have to worry themselves to death over an inevitable return of bloodshed and violence.

Aerith stood silently, watching the pool of mako with a cautious gaze. She should be grateful that she managed to do this, that she managed to fix one of humanity's greatest mistakes so easily, but... Nothing ever came easy without a heavy price. Karmic retribution, Cloud called it. Murphy's law, Cid used to snark. And the longer it took to manifest, the worse the punishment was. So where was it?

She was half-way towards grabbing Princess Gospel out of sheer paranoia when things started going to shit.  
The Planet reeled at the presence of The Foreign One surging up, begging Aerith to flee the crater before it consumed her. Sephiroth began to convulse with inhuman agony, his fragile mind struggling to survive under the Calamity's anger.

"Angeal! Go! Just take his soul and _go_!" Aerith yelled, heart pounding in her chest as she took Princess Guard into her hands and readied herself. She would not leave this place and let the Calamity run wild again. "Get as far away from here as possible and whatever you do, don't let go of Sephiroth until it's safe!"

She felt Angeal hesitate and she wanted to yell at him further, but it was only for a second, because she felt him brush a deep ' _Thank you_ ' across her mind before dragging Sephiroth down, down, down into the Planet's core and beyond, the bonds between the man's body and mind unravelling and snapping at the seams in the chaos. The cavern began to shift uneasily as the Calamity struck out and missed reclaiming its host's soul, and the alien roar of anger nearly brought Aerith to her knees. Sephiroth's body began to snap and morph into a shape unnatural, rising up into a hulking mass of fleshy, mako-stained wings and gnashing teeth. Blood and viscera dripped from its exposed throat and skull, empty green eyes glaring down with hungry malice and rage. The form this monster took was a defilement of humanity, a demonic mockery of the victims it consumed and the suffering it inflicted in its very cells. It was the epitome of eldritch, the definition of abomination, the terrible eater of souls and life itself.

Her hands shook. The Planet screamed in pain for its very last Cetra, its whole being sending out a warning cry.

Jenova grinned.

It struck out like a viper, and Aerith flung herself out of its way to just barely avoid its jaws. Battle instinct kicked in and she swung her staff, slicing at Jenova's flesh when it came too close. She moved quickly to put some distance between her and her foe. The area was far smaller than she would've liked to battle in, especially with the danger of accidentally falling into the mako pool and drowning, but she'd take drowning in mako over becoming possessed by the Calamity any day. As Jenova lunged for her again, she jumped, raining magical hellfire across its back in retaliation. She struggled to land properly- she wasn't Cid, after all- but she was decent enough to get back on her feet and start stabbing at Jenova again. It was a perilous dance of cat and mouse after that, Aerith using whatever physical and magical means she could to hit Jenova without risking herself. With each strike, the Calamity seemed to be angered further, striking harder and faster. It breathed flame and electricity in tandem, and Aerith felt the tips of her hair singe as she moved to avoid it. She took another look at it in a moment of pause, and realised that she hardly seemed to be doing anything to it. How long would she be here fighting this?! Could she even kill it...?

 _ **H̶̢͡O͏͜͞W͢͠͡ ͞D̸͢A̛̕R̡E YO͘Ų I͘N͢T̶E͞RF͝E͡RE,̶ ̵CE̶̵͘T̡͜R͜͢A̵̛!!͝!̷͢**_ A strange, venomous voice rang out, distorted and disturbing, and Aerith clutched at her head at the pain it brought. Unlike the Planet's soothing tones, now a distant, panicked whine, Jenova was sickly sweet yet horrifically _wrong_. No wonder Sephiroth and Cloud nearly went mad from it, its influence was starting to drive Aerith crazy!

It used her painful distraction to slam her into the cavern wall, shocking her body into nearly dropping Princess Guard. Her lungs fluttered in half-aborted breaths of pain, but she managed to get up and cast a well-timed Firaga at the thing. It howled in rage, and she gritted her teeth. It would not be worming itself into her mind, alien powers or not-- she couldn't afford that. She sunk Princess Guard's winged blade into Jenova's abdomen, shredding its insides with fire and wind, and got sprayed with mako-inflused blood... Sephiroth's blood. Jenova didn't bleed, it wasn't human. Still, this was...

Aerith scrambled backwards as it retaliated, and she managed to slice off one dark, diseased-looking tentacle from its arm. She soon found out what a massive mistake that was, as it began to writhe and slither on its own, grabbing at her with whiplash-like accuracy. "Blizzaga! Aeroga! Stop!" She quickly yelled in succession, thankfully managing to hit it and toss it back into the pool of mako in a frozen state. The Planet surged up in a wave, unmercifully shredding it to pieces now that it had regained some of its strength. Jenova shrieked at the loss of one of its limbs, shrill and sharp with intelligent anger, and Aerith feared that the cavern would collapse on her from the sheer force of its screams.

Clearly it figured out that blindly attacking at Aerith in a rage wasn't doing anything to kill her, so it instead drew back to look at her. She tensed, brandishing Princess Guard at it with a determined snarl. It only grinned back, and its flesh writhed as it began to morph, slimming and lightening into a human form, remnants of silver hair shortening into golden, sun-kissed tufts...

"How _dare_ you," Aerith whispered, her anger lighting Princess Guard's blade on fire as the Calamity took on Cloud's form, Cloudy Wolf outfit and all. It didn't do this to deceive her-- it did this to taunt her, to _mock_ her and the friends she loved dearly, using their forms to try and kill her once again. How dare it do this after everything they had suffered through!

Jenova dodged the fireball-esque Firaga Aerith flung at it, drawing out its recreation of Cloud's fusion sword to strike at her. Cold blue eyes peered down at her, almost paralyzing her with their nightmarish glint, but she gritted her teeth and moved away just enough to stab Jenova in the chest again, blasting another iteration of fire magic through it to drive home the point that _she would not give in without a fight_. Her eyes burned from the brunt of the flames and the sight of Cloud's flesh burning away by her hand, but she reminded herself that this could never be the real Cloud, because only Jenova could defile her friend's face like that. She gored the imposter further with holy vengeance, and slipped out of reach when the Calamity went to retaliate. Thus began the _true_ struggle.

It went through all of its tricks, from its sanity-draining telepathy to its rapid transformations between her loved ones and their fighting styles, but Aerith remained steadfast and resilient, braced by the Planet's presence beneath her. The Planet aided her whenever it could, wounding Jenova with revitalized Lifestream whenever it strayed too close to the mako pool. Aerith set off a Quaga just as it attempted to morph into Yuffie, flinging its fleshy fascimile of Conformer from its grip in the process. Before she could do anything about it, however, it flung itself at her with Vincent's speed and battle prowess, and Aerith was forced to dance around on the defensive if she wanted to stay alive. She was starting to tire from all the magic use and running around, and she knew Jenova knew that. She had to end this soon, or die a miserable death.

She threw Jenova away from her with a well-timed battle strike, the reds of Vincent's tattered cloak fusing into sky blue and deep green as Cid's image landed flawlessly. She threw up a powerful Wall before it could lunge at her again, and raised Princess Guard to the heavens. "Mighty Odin! Lend me your strength; buy me time!"

Odin's steed shrieked as the call of her magic brought the summon forth, Odin himself glaring at the Calamity with righteous loathing. He swiftly brought it into battle, forcing it to fight him lest he tear it to shreds upon his flaming sword. As they raged on without her, Aerith took a moment to catch her breath and put her thoughts in order. Okay, what could she do now? She only had so much magic and willpower left, and she didn't have much time to spare either. Jenova would be on her in an instant if she let her guard down at any point, regardless. The Planet had been helping her chip away at it steadily, but there was only so much it could do like that...

She glanced over at the glowing, disturbed mako, and then at the cavern floor, feeling the Planet roiling underneath her with anxiety. She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. Maybe...?

She placed Princess Guard out in front of her as she knelt, connecting with the Planet once more. ' _I need your energy for a spell._ '

The Planet hummed worriedly. It could poison her with such levels of Lifestream she was thinking of.

' _I don't care. I need to do something that might actually incapacitate it, even if it kills me._ ' Aerith looked up briefly, watching the brutal way Jenova lashed out at Odin and how the summon struggled to keep it at bay. It only hardened her resolve. ' _I'm going to try to turn it into ash so that its biological matter is completely dead. Please help me._ '

The Planet stayed silent. Aerith rose and righted her staff in her hands, staring at the mastered Fire materia set within its blade. She had to try. She _had_ to. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began to charge up the materia. The blade became enveloped in flame, growing in intensity the more energy she put into it. Fire into Fira into Firaga, and then she pushed further into the realms of Firaja and Firaza, the dangerous force of it starting to push back on her.

It was at that moment that the Planet's Lifestream rose and anchored her to the ground, feeding external energy into the spell to fuel it further. ' _Thank you,_ ' She thought as the flames grew hot, hotter than any human would dare bring it, but Aerith stayed firm. She pushed her mind against the fire to avoid being burned beyond repair, and then called back Odin into the aether to free her remaining magic pool. Odin dutifully vanished and left Jenova to its own wounded devices, but by the time it realised it could attack Aerith again, it found itself unable to with all the fire surrounding her. It roared, reverting to its natural abominable state to protect itself from the blistering heat and call of magic.

The Planet lurched, quaking beneath her feet as it summoned all of its strength towards this center point. The mako began to steam, Lifestream curling around her and through her extremities into the fire. The souls and voices of the Planet nearly swamped her with their intensity, loud and angry and determined to fuel and _help_ , and she was grateful even as it started to poison her.

She looked at the Calamity one last time, eyes blazing bright with Lifestream and power, and she lifted her staff. "Be gone, Dark Harbinger. Burn away to ash, and be _gone_."

She slammed Princess Guard onto the ground, sending the cave into a blazing inferno of fire and light.

Aerith screamed.

* * *

The North Crater erupted in a giant plume of flame and evaporated mako, vibrant green and red shining like a beacon. The earth rumbled violently, rock crumbling away into dust and massive glaciers melting in the face of such concentrated heat. Its effects were felt hundreds of miles away, the Planet screaming in triumph as its wound was finally cleansed.

The world breathed in silence as the heavenly fire disappeared and left flaky ashes in its wake.

* * *

She came back to awareness slowly, pain and sickness ringing all around her. Her vision distorted when she tried to open her eyes. What happened? How long had she been out? Why couldn't she move...?

Aerith squirmed weakly, arms shaking as she tried to push herself up. Pain suddenly lanced up her side when she jostled her legs, tearing a surprised and gutteral scream out of her throat. It wasn't painful enough to be a break, as far as she could tell, but whatever it was started oozing warm, sticky liquid again. Leg gashes, then, or something worse. Shit.

As she lay there, trapped and partially crushed under scorched rock and debris, she remembered what she had done and why she had done it. She sent a grateful thought to the Planet for its help, and the Planet cooed back, elated that she was cognizant again. It whispered to her soothingly, telling her not to fear for her life. Help was on the way, and the Planet would take care of her.

She rested.

When Aerith woke again, her vision was better, and she felt steady enough to cast a very small Cure on herself. It pulled at her drained magic, making her feel nauseous, but it staved off the infection and healed her less egregious wounds, and that was all that mattered. She experimentally pushed at the rocks at her back, but found them too heavy to move in the position she was in. She wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon, it seemed.

Her throat was parched. She needed water badly after Gaia knew how long she had been out, but she couldn't move.

She desperately hoped help arrived soon.

* * *

She had cast her seventh Cure on herself, exhaustion and thirst paramount, when the Planet suddenly rumbled beneath her. Help was here. Hold on just a little bit more. Aerith couldn't bring herself to do anything more than wheeze drily in gratitude, and she released her hold on her crystal bangle.

Eons passed in silence. It was maddening.

"...at a mess... What... ened here...?"

Was that... Cait Sith? She lifted her head up to peer into the darkness, the glowing green of dislodged mako almost painfully bright in her frustration, but she could see nothing. Yet.

A few more moments passed before she heard something again-- soft pitter-pats of footfalls, ones typically made by small creatures.

"I think I'm approaching the blast site, Reeve... There's scorch marks _everywhere_." Cait's voice echoed nearer, muted by the mako hanging in the air. Aerith felt tears spring to her eyes, coughing as she tried to sob. She'd get out of here. She'd _live_. She just needed to catch his attention somehow...

It took all of her remaining willpower to grab a small, palm-sized rock just barely within her reach, and it took every single ounce of strength she had to fling it against the far wall, making it skitter and clatter noisily.

"What the-?"

Oh thank Gaia. She collapsed back onto the rocks, utterly exhausted, and waited for his curiosity to get the best of him.

"Something might be here. I just heard a rock being thrown-" A gasp. She didn't have the strength to react to it. "Dear Lord! Someone's trapped in here! Hang on-" He skidded down a slope of rocks and hurried to her side. His voice rang much, much closer when he spoke next. "Lassie! Lassie, are ye alive?! Give me a sign! Anything!"

Slowly, somehow, Aerith managed to lift her head again, turning weary eyes onto Cait and barely noticing his complete and utter shock upon seeing her face. "C...C- Cai-" She ended up in a hoarse coughing fit, everything too dry to function correctly.

"H-Hey, it's gonna be alright! Hang on, I'll get ye some water!"

There was the sound of a flask being opened, and suddenly water was at her lips. She drank greedily, ignoring the way Cait fussed over her, and felt instantly revitalized when she paused to breathe. She would never, ever take water for granted after this, that's for sure.

Cait sighed in relief. "Okay... Can ye speak, lassie? Do ye need more water?"

She shook her head, wetting her lips briefly. "N...No."

He stared at her for a while, taken off-guard by her raspy yet familiar voice, and then nodded. "Alright, lassie, I'm gonna get ye outta there. Hold on fer just a little longer, okay? I'm gonna get a team down here to patch ye up. Stay with me."

She struggled to stay awake as long as she could, barely registering Cait's choked gasp as he uncovered her brutalized legs and burn marks. He was saying something else to her, some sort of hurried question, but she was too tired to hear it. She would live, and that's all she cared about.

She fell unconscious as soon as she saw human shapes enter the cave.

* * *

There was nothingness. No light, no feeling, no sound... no real sound, anyway. It was almost like being underwater, where everything was a murky, inaudible mutation of its true self. A loving presence brushed against her mind, rousing her with its familiar, kind laugh. ' _Zack,_ ' she thought, and then regained herself. As soon as this happened, the strange, bubbling whispers in her ears fled, only to be replaced by...

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

' _A hospital,_ ' Aerith thought faintly through the edges of sleep, like she was currently detatched from her body in some way. ' _I'm at a hospital. I think._ '

She hoped she was at a hospital. The thing beneath her- a bed, probably- felt too uniformally comfortable to be a laboratory bed, and she didn't smell any sickly sweet mako odors in the air. In fact, it smelled fresh and cool, like there was a breeze. ... There _was_ a small breeze, she could feel it across her face. Definitely a hospital, then.

She laid there for a few more minutes, listening to the steady, quiet beeping of the heart monitor to ease herself back into reality, and then cautiously cracked an eye open. The ceiling above her was a light shade of beige, dusky in the dimmed light. Opening her eyes further revealed an entire room, sparsely decorated with furniture and medical equipment. The sun looked like it had just set, the diffuse light coming in from an open window. Huh. Not a bad way to wake up from being injured and dehydrated, actually.  
Aerith experimentally moved her arms and found them just as usable as they were before, so she carefully (and stubbornly) pulled herself up to a sitting position, medical wires and all. A nurse came in just as she was trying to figure out how to move her pillow.

"W- Whoa!" The man nearly dropped his supplies upon seeing her awake, and he placed them on a small table before rushing to her side. She could see a small tag clipped on him that identified him as WRO personnel. "You're awake! Wow, that's- Oh, here, let me-" He quickly repositioned her pillow for her so she could lean back on it, and checked her vitals very briefly. "You look all good, but... How are you feeling? Sick? Tired?"

She looked at him for a moment before shrugging softly. "A little tired, but... not actually tired. Um... how long have I been out...?"

"Four days." He smiled reassuringly at her blank look of surprise. "Usually being dehydrated and having your legs cut up wouldn't make you sleep that long, but apparently you drained your MP into the negatives and got exposed to a high concentration of mako fumes. I'm surprised you weren't out longer, actually."

Aerith nodded, trying to pull her thoughts together into something cohesive. Four days... that was very lucky, all things considered. "Okay. Where am I?"

"You're at the WRO's Deusericus Hospital in the Icicle Area. You were extracted directly from the North Crater, so..."

She nodded again, this time rather sluggishly. "Okay..."

The man quickly caught onto her changed mental state and began to help her lay back down. She didn't protest against it. "Go rest. You need it. I'll be right here if you need me for anything, okay?"

She fell asleep before she could reply. How irksome.

Aerith spent the next few days like that, waking up for five minutes and then falling back asleep for eight to ten hours, before she recovered from most of her MP exhaustion. Her physical wounds, as miraculously minimal as they were (no permanent burn scars despite being in the center of a giant fire plume was suspect, but Aerith found out in private that the Planet protected her with its presence), were already partially healed, and soon she was itching to get up and start walking again. Her nurse- Jamie Cox, he introduced himself as- wanted her legs to heal up more before starting physical therapy, which made sense considering her legs looked more like a wad of stitches than actual flesh at the moment. Didn't stop her from being stubborn and painfully ooching her way over to places, though. Funny how she was the designated healer of the party but was a terrible patient herself. Once she was feeling better, she gave the hospital her real name and other information, too fed up with hiding behind 'Eva Sarghil' any longer because dammit, she just survived kamikazeing a nearly invincible alien, to hell with fake identity bullshit. The cat would've gotten out of the bag at some point, anyway.

During that time, she asked the Planet what happened to Jenova. Its smug, weary disposition told her that it was finally dead, all of its cells completely cremated. The only J-cells now were those in Cloud and the few ex-Soldiers and Sephiroth Clones still roaming around, and they were virtually useless without a host to control them. The relief Aerith felt at the news was palpable, and sort of surreal-- for all the nightmares she had about Jenova and its vile influence, she never expected it could actually be killed. She still had nightmares about endless thirst or burning alive or being crushed to death, little human psyche annoyances compared to the facts of the real world, but... those would go away eventually, so she wasn't worried about them.

She got her first visitor four days after she first woke up.

Aerith was gently pulled out of her nap by a hand in her hair, softly smoothing down the bed tangles in it. The way it moved wasn't Jamie's clinical touch, that much was obvious, so maybe... As she opened her eyes, the hand snatched itself away like it had been burned, and there Cloud was, looking down at her with an unreadable expression. At first she was elated, happy to see her dearest friend in the way he was _supposed_ to be, but then guilt swamped her as she remembered the situation. She didn't mean to, but she let duty take priority over her friends again and now they were here, like this, reunited in the worst way possible with hardly any explanation. She was the worst kind of friend for doing this to him.

"I'm sorry," Aerith whispered hoarsely, vocal chords not working right having just woken up, but she cleared her throat and went on. "I'm sorry, Cloud. I- I should have told you. I just- I didn't even know I was going to come back in the first place, and I thought that- that actually coming back might have just made things worse because I had been gone so long, so I just-" She couldn't bear to look at him anymore, so she turned her head away-- it was the most she could do without going through the pains of carefully twisting her body around. "I was just being an idiot. I'm sorry for lying to you. You have every right to be mad at me."

He was silent. The seconds ticked by slowly, and Aerith struggled to keep her mind sound. She would honestly rather have him shouting at her, or coldly speaking to her, or _something_ , not this total lack of response. Rip the bandaid off of all this so that they could just live with it and move on. Hah, what an ironic train of thought.

He eventually let out a small, resigned-sounding exhale and shifted in his seat. "You went up to the North Crater."

"...Yeah."

"By yourself."

She frowned, turning her head to look back at him. "I needed to go as soon as I could. It was important."

Cloud's face twisted painfully, and Aerith immediately remembered what happened the last time she said something like that. Dammit. "You couldn't have told one of us?"

She didn't know how to answer that at first. It really would've been better if she had at least _someone_ with her. But at the same time... "I... guess I thought it'd be better if I just did it before..." She sighed, bringing a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "No. It was really that I felt like I was the only one who could do it. And I kinda was, honestly."

"...What do you mean?"

Aerith looked at him carefully, making sure he wasn't on the verge of freaking out. He wasn't. Yet. "I had to heal the Planet- heal Sephiroth- without running too much risk of a fight."

His eyes glinted steely at the mention of the man's name, but he didn't react other than that. She decided to continue explaining in a softer tone. "Tifa told me you were acting up again. Well, she didn't _actually_ tell me, I cheated the context in, but... Once I figured it out, I knew I had to prioritize getting rid of Sephiroth for good before anything else. And," she laughed a little, "I think I actually managed to get rid of him. And Jenova. Yay for overkill cremation."

He paused, clearly a little surprised. "That was you?"

"Yep. The Planet helped, but... yep. My magic was completely toast after that-- it's why it's taking me so long to recover, I think."

They sat in silence, not quite comfortable but at least not as tense as before. Aerith decided to sit up, helped along by Cloud's gentle yet hovering hands. It was cute. Eventually, it was Cloud that broke the silence, uncharacteristically soft. "Tell me everything that happened."

She did. She told him how she trekked up the crater cliffs by herself, how she set up camp at the very center and found Sephiroth, how she talked with him and convinced him to move on... How Jenova nearly killed him in the process, and how it tried to kill her with everything it had for interfering. Cloud already knew how she was found, he just needed everything that happened before. She playfully lamented the loss of her supplies, and not so playfully the loss of her guitar; she had loved her guitar, even if she would rather have it destroyed than herself brutally dead. All-in-all, it was a rather short explanation, considering all the work that went into the trip.

At the end, Cloud pulled her into a gentle hug, as if he were afraid of breaking her. "I'm sorry you didn't feel like you could trust us."

"Idiot," she mumbled into his shoulder, hoping he could feel the intense frown she had through his many layers of clothing. "It wasn't your fault. I was just scared, and stupid, and revived from the dead for some freaking reason. It was just _weird_. Maybe my brain has melted and this is some weird hell for me, I don't know."

The small huff he let out was vaguely reminiscent of a smile. "Not a very good hell if it has you in it, honestly."

It made her giggle uncontrollably. "Stop flattering me, you jerk! I'm supposed to be feeling sorry!"

Cloud stayed with her the whole time she was awake, quietly giving her status updates on their other friends. They had reacted in pandemonium, as she expected, over her return-- Tifa had freaked out the most out of all of them, considering Aerith had been right under her nose for _months_. When Aerith tried to start apologizing again, Cloud told her to say it all to Tifa, which, yeah, fair enough. She grew tired at that point, and Cloud put her to bed rather stubbornly, which she pointed out was incredibly ironic coming from "Mr. I-Don't-Need-Sleep-I'm-Ex-SOLDIER." He threatened her with a Sleepel and she laughed.

She slept easy for the first time since she made her home in Edge.

* * *

Everyone came to visit her at some point. Tifa was understandably upset at her deception, but forgave her easily enough, which she was so, so grateful for. Barret absolutely crushed her in a hug and verbally ripped her a new asshole-- not that she minded, but still, it was quite a rant. Cid quickly stopped by with a boat-load of fussing and cussing her out for being a stupid shit. Yuffie and Nanaki came together once Yuffie was able to extract herself from her duties, and the poor Wutain girl cried at the sight of her being alive again, which made _Aerith_ cry because she didn't like to see her friends that upset, and it was such a mess. Reeve and Cait Sith's visit was brief but well-received, and Reeve's awkward attempts at humor to pass the time were super adorable.

Vincent was the last, but certainly not least, to visit, and stayed with her the longest, even through her clumsy and embarrassing attempts at physical therapy. After the first very long, very close hug- which completely took her off guard because Vincent wasn't touchy in the slightest- he didn't say much to her other than the usual "Are you well?" and "Do you need anything?" and maybe the occasional deadpan remark or two... but the way he watched over her like a hawk spoke volumes. She even saw him "sneaking" updates about her condition to the AVALANCHE texting group chat, as much trouble as he had with phones. His presence certainly made it easier to tough out the frustration of slow healing, that was for sure.

When she was finally cleared out of the hospital after two incredibly boring weeks, Aerith found out that apparently, most of her stuff had survived the giant fire blast she made. Almost all of her materia and unmelted items were salvaged from the wreck, including Princess Gospel and, miraculously enough, her electric guitar. The guitar was only minimally damaged, its base only slightly busted up from being tossed around. Her old mastered Fire materia was completely shattered into oblivion, apparently, which was a shame but didn't surprise her in the slightest. Her iconic ribbon was scorched to shreds and her clothes were permanently burnt, so Aerith had to refresh her wardrobe a little bit and pull her hair back in a simple high ponytail. She was just glad she was even alive after encountering Jenova, and honestly, she'd probably feel like that for a very long time.

Vincent was the one to escort her to the _Shera_ \- Cid's new airship, apparently- once she was ready to go.

"What's this, my own personal ride?" She joked to Cid once she came aboard, half-flustered by the special treatment. Aerith was so used to having to claw her own way through the world that this just seemed too... _easy_.

"Ey, don't you get any funny ideas, girlie." Cid snarked back, giving her a bit of a grumpy stink-eye. "I have business in Edge an' you were on my path, so ye get t' hitch a ride. It ain't nothin' more than that."

She smiled so widely it hurt, and took pride in the way his expression softened with relief at the sight of it. "Thank you for picking me up. I appreciate it."

The flight was only a few hours long, most of which she spent sleeping (ughhhh, she was starting to feel like Vincent now, sleeping all the time!). She was wide awake when they touched down in Edge, though, and noted that neither Cid nor Vincent seemed to be in a hurry to go anywhere other than Seventh Heaven for the night. Strange.

In hindsight, it should have been obvious.

"SURPRISE!" Came the shouts of several people as soon as Aerith stepped through the door, startling her so much she nearly fell over and dropped all of her stuff.

"O-Oh my gosh... Guys!" She laughed once she realised what was happening and batted off Vincent's protective hovering with a big smile. "You didn't have to do this!"

"Of course we did!" Tifa exclaimed from all the way in the back, equal parts determined and excited while holding up a couple trays of food. Holy shit, now that she looked closer, there was a lot of food and drink on the tables surrounding the bar, and even a couple of decorative streamers across the back wall to pretty things up. If that wasn't a good, simple welcome feast, she didn't know what would be. "There's no way we wouldn't celebrate you coming back home!"

Home... Aerith looked at her friends circled around the bar, all so happy to see her, as she let it sink in that yeah, she was really here. She was really back home with her friends. And it hit her that she could've had this much, much sooner, and with so much less pain, if she had just _told them_. They had all gone through the weirdest stuff to ever happen on the Planet together! Resurrecting from the dead should not have been an issue. She should've trusted her friends, they _loved_ her.

She only realised she was crying when Tifa called her name with a deeply worried look. Aerith laughed a little as she wiped away the tears, inhaling sharply to keep from sobbing. "I- I-I'm sorry, I just- you all are just- y-you've done all this sweet stuff for me... a-and I've been such a _shit_!"

Cid grumbled something under his breath and put a hand on her tiny shoulder, steadying it as it shook. "C'mon, girlie, you've already apologized fer that shit, haven't ya? Quit beatin' yerself up about it. We already did that a week ago."

That they did, but still. "S-Still! I should have just-" She really did sob a few times then, causing a few of her friends to stand up from their seats in barely veiled alarm. She couldn't see them well with how watery her eyes were at the moment, but they looked about five seconds from smothering her in a giant, overprotective cuddle pile to make her stop crying. Something cracked within her at the sight and she spread her arms out wide, smiling wobbly at them. "Just- c-come here, please? I'm so sorry. I-I've missed you all so much!"

They were all on her in an instant, and she struggled to hug as many of them as she could with how small her body was. Nanaki was stuck in the middle with her as the rest crowded around, some of them briefly and playfully fighting for the chance to hug Aerith, and she couldn't help but start laughing and crying harder because oh Gaia this was really happening. With renewed vigor she hugged all of them, even Reeve and Vincent, _especially_ Vincent, he wasn't getting away with being an aloof loner this time! Seeing them all like this firmly replaced the disgusting _wrongness_ of their doppelgangers at the North Crater, and Aerith finally felt like she could relax.

Eventually, when it looked like Aerith was finally calming down some, Barret swiftly scooped her up onto his shoulder, ignoring her surprised yelp. "Awright, cryin' session's over! Time for some good ol' food and catch-up!"

"B-BARRET!" Aerith yelled, swaying on her new perch a bit as she tried to right herself without hitting her head on the ceiling. He could have warned her! "THE CEILING ISN'T TALL ENOUGH FOR THIS!"

The man laughed, and she couldn't help but laugh with him, so she allowed him to carry her over to the bar and set her on one of the center stools like she were a princess. As she scrubbed her face clear of the remaining tears and set her bags down beside her seat, she looked at the spreads of food and drink around her. It was all hot and fresh and very delicious looking, and while she wasn't a big eater, she knew she was in for a treat.

Aerith looked up from her inspection to find nine pairs of eyes watching her, and she stared back at them in confusion before realising what they were waiting for. "Oh. C'mon, guys, let's eat. You don't have to wait on me!"

" _Finally_! I'm so hungry I could eat a whole chocobo!" Yuffie exclaimed and immediately grabbed a plate to pile food on.

"Make that two." Cid was right behind her, not-so-subtly prodding at the ninja girl so she'd move faster. "I've been starvin' all fuckin' day 'cause a' Teef. Damn woman wouldn't let me eat any a' this 'fore our girlie came home."

"We made all of this food for _Aerith_ , not just for us!" Tifa scolded, handing him a pair of salad tongs when he reached the lettuce mix. "You could have gotten a snack on the way back or something."

"What! An' spoil my appetite fer good, home-cooked food?! Hell no, I'd rather die!"

Aerith laughed and got up from her seat. Food time, baby.

The food was wonderful. There was a lot, but it was also feeding nine or so people, most of which were big and strong men. Everyone attacked the casseroles first, predictably, because Tifa made some of the best casseroles in existence, and then settled in and amongst all the other food items. Aerith couldn't remember a better meal than this in her entire life... though that may be the previous diet of hospital food talking. Once their plates were filled, they immediately sat down and pestered Aerith into telling them her whole story. She did after she ate a little, and watched with amusement as they seemed to hang onto her every word. She supposed thinking someone dead for three and a half years would make you like that, but... Still, if they weren't her dearest friends, she would've felt very uncomfortable under all the attention. They shared a few laughs over her funnier moments and made sure her good mood didn't slip. She was lucky to be with them again.

Eventually Tifa asked her if she could play a song for them. "For good luck," she said. Aerith looked at her leather guitar case for a bit and shrugged, only asking what sort of music she should play. There was a bit of chaos with all the suggestions, but eventually it was decided that since it was her guitar, she'd choose what to play. It was flattering, but a little bit daunting-- she had quite a few favorites, but she didn't want to bring down the mood with them. So she told them she'd think about it, and think she did.

She thought as they went back to discussing other things, the rowdier folk teasing each other over anything they could think of. She thought as she finished up her meal, and then thought as she took out her guitar and warmed up her fingers to its strings. She thought so much she accidentally caused her friends to worry, as silent as she was.

A song finally popped into her head then, one that she didn't play very often. It was more cheerful than "Hollow," but still had that same _depth_. Yes, it would work perfectly. She quietly tested out the proper chords, finding them surprisingly simple, and then cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "I think I have a song in mind now."

"Hell yeah! Let's hear it!" Yuffie yelled as boisterously as ever, raising her drink in an encouraging toast. It was non-alcoholic punch-- she still wasn't old enough to have alcohol yet.

They all fell silent and watched her with curious eyes. Aerith settled into her lone seat on the stage, nervousness gripping her for a second, but then she forced a smile on her face and began to play. She softly hummed along with the main melody to prepare herself, and then sang with a light heart.

"How did I live  
In a kingdom of thieves...  
And people who say  
Things they don't really mean, really mean?"

She would never think twice again. She nearly killed herself doing that, after all.

* * *

Eva Sarghil returned to Edge the same, but different. Her mighty golden staff looked more worn than before, signifying battle, and she walked upon slightly shaky legs for a while, but the biggest difference was in her eyes. She was happy, happier than anything that had made her happy before, and the laws of the world were finally set to rights. Well, it wasn't _that_ extreme, but her neighbors cared for her dearly and were much relieved at this change. They asked what had happened, and she did not answer, though this time it was a hesitant sort of silence. Life returned to normal.

When Cloud Strife, hero of the Jenova War, stopped by Eva's house for a delivery, she greeted him as if they were dear old friends, which puzzled the neighborhood. Eva had never indicated any familiarity with the heroes of the Jenova War before, so what was this all about? It turned out that she was, in fact, old friends with them, she had just simply never mentioned it before. The children of the orphanage she helped out at became starry-eyed at this confession, and begged her to bring them over to visit sometime. She had laughed and said she'd think about it with a mischievous, open twinkle in her eye, and it was a strange thing to see after they had spent so long seeing her closed off. Perhaps Eva had been estranged from her old friends, and only now recently made amends. Mrs. Anatolia made mention of this to her at some point and told her she should have done it sooner, but later was better than never. (Aerith almost died from laughter on the inside in that moment. If only they knew!)

The lily in the desert began to thrive, no longer held back by the oppressive weight of darkness, and turned the sands into soil once more. The air was filled with its lovely song, tinged with healing fire and sacrifice.

The sun rose on a new day.

...

"Oh, shoot. I forgot to tell that lady what the North Crater experience was like."

Oh well. She'll just have to go back up there some day, won't she?

**Author's Note:**

> Comments, kudos, critiques, etc. are very appreciated~


End file.
